Captain Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather. He lives with his wife Marcia, also known as the First Mate, their two dogs, and frequently watch their granddaughter Kayla, whom Captain Ed calls The Little Admiral... [read more]

The National Republican Senatorial Committee wants to discourage conservative Republicans from having an option to the liberal Lincoln Chaffee, who has not only helped form the Gang of 14 which arrogated power from the majority on judicial nominations but also has attacked the Iraq War and George Bush for waging it. Even among RINOs, Linc Chaffee stands out as the extreme edge of a big-tent approach. Now, for some reason, the NRSC wants Rhode Islanders to stick with a Senator that more often than not betrays the GOP, going so far as to actively campaign against a conservative with the temerity to challenge Chaffee in the primary:

Liberal Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee refused to support President Bush in the last election, opposed the GOP tax cuts and was the only Republican to vote against the use of military force in Iraq, a war he has likened to Vietnam.

So why, a year before the election, is the GOP embracing Chafee and spending close to $200,000 on television ads aimed at undercutting his conservative rival in the Republican primary, Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey?

Like him or not, Republicans consider Chafee their best chance to win in heavily Democratic Rhode Island.

Brian Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said it is "ridiculous" that Laffey is running against "the only Republican that can keep the seat in the Senate." The committee is financing the ads and urging Laffey to abandon the race.

This explains exactly why I started the Not One Dime campaign in the first place. I let it sit for a while until we saw whether the NRSC had listened to our objections and waited until after the primaries to commit funds to the most objectionable of the current GOP caucus. Not only have they not done that, but now they want to spend the money they collect from conservatives to attack other conservatives who will offer a real choice to Rhode Islanders. In fact, the NRSC plans to spend $200,000 attacking Laffey in the primary after wooing him to run for statewide office earlier. Talk about gratitude! Ladies and gentlemen, that's what the NRSC thinks is a good use of your donations -- spending six figures of it against fellow Republicans, especially one that might actually support the Republican agenda.

For his part, Chaffee smugly tells the AP that he and the White House have a "non-aggression pact" -- which allows him to betray Bush and the GOP on almost all critical points of policy. Chaffee even flirted with pulling a Jim Jeffords at one point over his dissatisfaction over the GOP's refusal to embrace its inner Nelson Rockefeller, but the party wooed him back, albeit in name only.

For that reason, I have decided to give Mayor Stephen Laffey the NOD -- by making him the first endorsement for the Not One Dime campaign. We need to get funding to Laffey in order to make sure he stays in the primary against Chaffee. If you donated to the NRSC in the past, take that amount and put it into the hands of Laffey this year and next. For Rhode Islanders, we need to see some volunteer effort to get help to Laffey before the NRSC and the RNC chase the mayor off.

Let's start sending the message now to the NRSC -- Not One Dime for the re-election of those who won't support the GOP at all, except to put an R by their name.